Locals will be looking to smoke the competition as the Kottonmouth Kings weed out the amateurs from the experts at the 2nd annual Isla Vista Joint Rolling Contest this Saturday.

The UCSB Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is hosting the contest, which also features live music, from 1 to 4 p.m. in Anisq’ Oyo’ Park. Jacob Roland, president of NORML, said the Kottonmouth Kings – a band devoted to the legalization of marijuana – will judge the event.

Roland said there will be eight categories of competition in both joint and blunt rolling; prizes will be awarded to the winners of each contest. Judges will pick winners for each competition based on four criteria: the fastest, fattest, primo and freestyle.

“Primo is the best and most evenly distributed; it’s the best example of a joint or blunt,” Roland said. “Last year the fastest [rollers] were both under 30 seconds.”

It costs participants $15 to compete in all eight categories, $10 to compete in four events and $5 to compete in two of the contests. Prizes will include pipes, bubblers, grinders and a handmade skateboard, Roland said.

Roland said each joint and blunt must be hand rolled in under 10 minutes to avoid disqualification. Contestants will use an herbal substitute – instead of marijuana – and all supplies will be provided.

NORML is a campus organization that pushes for local legislation to legalize the use of marijuana in the area. Roland said he is involved in the organization because he thinks people have as much right to smoke marijuana as they do to buy and drink alcohol. He said he supports legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana for adult use.

“I think that the drug war is a huge waste of money and that it would be advantageous to the United States to legalize marijuana,” Roland said. “The money that can be gained from taxing it could go to any number of options, like education.”

Roland said he thinks tomorrow’s festivities should be a good time, for both participants and spectators.

“We want as many people there as possible,” Roland said. “It’s always quite the event to see, especially freestyle and fastest competition. People get very creative.”

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